Tuesday, 9 May 2017

"Flood of BBC bias claims"

“Flood of BBC bias claims for new watchdog: Viewers have hit out at more than 60 broadcasts since Ofcom became its regulator”

Most of the below-the-line comments are from people wingeing about Laura Kuenssberg, whom they dislike mainly because they see her as opinionated, rude, Scottish and when they’ve done - basically criticising her for doing her job - they start on her appearance.

"The BBC has received a record number of complaints about its programmes this year.Viewers lodged 1,596 grievances, more than double the 794 received in the previous 12 months."

They’ve outlined a variety of the issues that have upset viewers. They must have been pretty upset if they were prepared to take on the nigh impenetrable complaints procedure.

I did try to look up some of the issues mentioned in the article, and I couldn’t fine the one about the BBC 2 series Correspondent that was “biased towards Israel” (That must have been quite a programme) but what I did see was massive list of‘decisions not to respond further to a complaint about………”

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Talking about below-the-line comments, I only look at some of them to get a sense of the zeitgeist. I’ve noticed that even the Guardian commentariat has softened its stance on Israel and the Palestinians. (They seem less sympathetic to the Palestinians and rather less hostile to the Israelis these days.)

However, that is counterbalanced by a persistent strain of overt and covert antisemitic sentiment below-the-line on right-wing platforms, such as The Times and The Spectator.

For example anything in The Times by Melanie Phillips will attract a lot of comments that start with “I rarely agree with Melanie, but..” or “I don’t usually like anything Melanie has to say” and some of them will dismiss her out of hand without bothering to flesh out an argument.

Her latest piece (£) "Universities have caved in to dogma and thuggery" is about the growing trend in US and UK universities for ‘no-platforming’ speakers of the ‘wrong’ type lest they cause distress to the delicate type of student that has suddenly sprouted everywhere. Pass the smelling salts.

A couple of btl commenters accused her of double standards, since she was amongst the voices objecting to hate-preachers and the like being given free rein in our universities (and mosques) to incite hatred or even violence. The thing is, though, that hate-preachers are still given platforms (and so are whole anti-Zionist conferences and rallies and so on) where unwelcome, dissenting voices are dealt with, shouted down or ejected in no uncertain terms. But when a talk or lecture is scheduled by a pro-Israeli speaker, it’s cancelled, hounded from venue to venue, or drowned out by screaming activists.)

The double standards are the other way round. Free rein for the anti-Zios, no-platform for the pros.

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Still vaguely on topic, the BDS movement is still going strong, but it seems to be losing some of its momentum. Michael Gove gave a speech criticising BDS

24 comments:

And my opinion of Ms. K is guided mainly by her progressing from tweets about Ed Miliband entering through doors to ones that morph from what people have said to what she thinks sounds better in her own head.

Complete Fake News on BBC today. I got one of those 1984-style phone alerts from the BBC making it sound as if Trump was engaged in a cover up...of course the BBC can report Democrats and others' suspicions...but this was in the BBC "voice".

Also the BBC aren't properly reporting the letter of dismissal which makes it clear that Comey has told Trump three times he, the President, is not being investigated.

BTW the way I see that the BBC News motto is "Live the Story"! More like "Imagine the Story, then pretend it's already happened whilst ignoring a load of real news" whether it be Hamas turning into Guardian reading pro-feminists or go on and on about "racist" deaths in the USA whilst ignoring far more killings in Mexico, Brazil and South Africa, or campaigning relentlessly for the Brexit vote to be frustrate or completely ignoring the content of the Macron e mail leaks (think they would if they were Trump e mails?).

The BBC is out of control - or if you prefer under the control of a Guardian-loving FT-friendly pro-globalist elite.

I agree about the hamming up. But I think there is bias as their centre of gravity is the soggy left political position: pro-Remain, pro-more government spending, pro-welfarism, pro-bogus refugees, pro-bogus human rights, and thus pro-soggy left Labour and soggy left Lib Dems. If they asked half of their questions on the basis that the Brexit Referendum vote was legitimate and informed, hamming that up, then that would be different.

Talking of Norman Smith ... on Today early morning he was giving it big time that the Tory election expenses investigation was about to blow May's campaign off track. I can't be bothered to relisten, but I do remember that he said up to 30 Tory MPs would be prosecuted and would have to stand down, giving May only one day to find replacements. Further, the scandal would play right into Corbyn's narrative. It was going to be the first time that May lost control of events! Oh woe it will be to be a Tory on this day!!!! (ok the last is my interpretation).

Well blow me down, when I got home to find that the number of Tory MPs to be prosecuted is zero.

If you think the BBC is left wing you must be living on a different planet or parallel universe or both.... Robinson, Marr, Neil, painfully right wing and do not hesitate to spin lies without batting an eyelid.

I don’t have a Twitter account so I have no idea what Laura Kuenssberg tweets, but through what I am told is the stone age media of television Laura Kuenssberg isn’t any more rude or opinionated than the average BBC pundit. The problem with Laura Kuenssberg isn’t Laura Kuenssberg. It's the role the BBC has allotted to her and the contempt they have for the intelligence of their audience.

I cannot see much point in complaining to Ofcom. Its ruling echelon is stuffed full of ex-BBC persons and other left-leaning media types. It was crazy of the Conservative government to give media oversight to that flawed organisation.

Macron describes himself as a centrist yet supports destructive globalism, wants to subsume France into a undemocratic European superstate, does not believe in effective patrolling of borders and does not wish to see any reduction in mass immigration. That's not a centrist in my book, that's a kind of extreme "no borders" globalist.

I would define myself as a populist wishing to focus on what people at large consider important. In the UK there is a strong majority for getting some real control over inward migration - that doesn't mean no migration but it does mean no more mass immigration, and no more unconditional acquisition of citizenship.

For me controlling inward migration is absolutely vital in order to bring a halt to the inexorable rise in population which is placing such pressure on our housing market and our education and health services.

But according to the BBC, ITV, Sky, Guardian, FT, Independent, Lib Dems and most of the Labour Party, to oppose mass immigration is to be "racist", "part of the left behind", "nationalist" (OK for SNP but not the rest of us apparently) and "wishing to return us to the 1950s".

All bull. Personally I'm none of the above, not even a nationalist - I'm more a "citizenist". I don't know anyone who wants to return to the 1950s of corporal punishment, hidden abuse, stodgy food, unheated homes, and deathly dull Sundays...a few perhaps but a tiny proportion of those who voted to Leave the EU and who wish to see effective migration control.

The vast majority want a decent and safe future with improved prospects for their children and grandchildren.

What is currently on offer is more of the same: unprecedented population growth, soaring towards over 100 million by 2060; growth of the parallel Sharia system; yet more eye-watering debt being accumuldated; and more de-industrialisation.

Interesting to see that as we suspected, it wasn't going to be a "true to life" narrative but a fake news-fake-drama. Not a single mention of Islam when everyone knows the Islamic view of Kuffar women is key to the whole appalling saga.

At least we know that the BBC has not lost its marbles as some first thought and is resolutely maintaining the fiction it is constantly peddling, that Islam is a progressive feminist creed. This drama ticks two boxes: it says "we have not ducked dealing with this difficult issue" and "we love Islam".

IIRC, the BBC refused to mention The Religion Which Shall Not Be Named when covering the Rochdale grooming gangs trial. It was always 'Pakistani men' and suchlike. Complainers were told that it was just some cultural thing which had nothing to do with their religion, even though the judge at the trial of one group specifically said it was in his summing up.

I'd say that if it really was just some Pakistani cultural thing that had nothing to do with Islam, they'd be molesting teenage boys instead of girls.

"Asian" - sometimes "men of Pakistani heritage". Pretty odd really...they don't talk about "men of Irish heritage"...or "men of Australian heritage". Why does the BBC start using these categories? Because they don't want to use the one category that really makes sense in this context.

Having listened to the News Quiz this evening, which was basically a party political broadcast on behalf of the Labour Party, I will be making a complaint to the BBC. I have never sent any kind of complaint to any newspaper or broadcaster before. I realise that this is a completely fruitless task, but with a General Election only four weeks away this is a disgrace.